How to Breed Killifish
By Evelyn
Copyright 2007

Breeding Killifish with the mop option

These are the species for the mop spawning option
http://new.killi.net/species/


What will you need

• pH 6.0 - 7.5 (depending on species)

• dH 3-12 (also depending on species)

• a 10 gallon tank that is already cycled (with a divider if you want to have two pairs)

• 2 mops, one for each site (either out of Yarn or Java moss)

• 2 small sponge filter for each side of the tank

• 5 tablespoon of aquarium salt (1/2 tsp. for 1 gallon)

• Very low lightning

• Cooler room that's about 73-79 degrees (they like to have it cooler)

• Thermometer

• and of course 2 breeding pairs (which must be acclimated properly, will talk about that later)

How to do it?

• Have your tank set up and cycled, including the divider, the mops and the salt

• Acclimate your fish properly as directed below

• Feed your pairs 2-4 times a day small portions with live food, like Baby Brine Shrimp or Tubifex worms, or frozen foods, but don't overfeed them, net all the food not eaten out of the tanks

• Provide very low lightning for them, (get a lid with the lightning), because they're all jumpers

• Do partial water changes every 4 days of at least 50%, and refill with aged water and the amount of salt required.

• After about 2 days you can start collecting the eggs, it's recommended to do it either every day or once a week.

If you do the yarn mop, what you should do to it every day:

1- Put wet peat moss, but not dripping wet (that was boiled out before) in a Ziploc bag
2- Take out the mop of the tank and strip it from excess water, by wringing it out (don't worry the eggs won't brake)
3- Then put it on a paper towel and have either sunlight or a low light reading lamp (which should be about a foot away), and start looking through your mop for eggs, which will look like the pic that follows: http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb53/evelynmarch26/Killie33.jpg
4- you can collect them with either a toothpick (just swipe over the mop and the egg will stick to it) or squeezer which are half round
5- Pput the eggs in the ready to go peat moss in your bag, Seal the bag, mark it with the date, species, and expected hatching date
6- When you do daily striping's you can always ad these eggs to that bag, that will ensure you that they will hatch at the same time

If you have mops out of java moss, you do it once a week. Just take it out of the tank, wring out any water until it doesn't drip any more, put it in a zip log bag, Seal the bag, mark it with the date, species, and expected hatching date

What increases more egg spawning?

1- Feeding live black worms every day
2- Water changes of at least 50% every fourth day
3- daily egg harvest (as opposed to weekly)
4- and of course weather changes have a big impact on breeding (killies like to spawn after a storm)

Breeding Killifish with the peat option

Before I start here is a link to a site where the incubation time for all annual species is specified as well as in which temperatures they're suppose to be incubated in and with that indicates how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. That means that these are all bottom spawners and require the peat method spawning and breeding.
http://www.killi.net/breeding/annuals/times/


What you will need:

• 5 gallon tank, which is already cycled

• 1 pair of killifish properly acclimated

• 1 sponge filter

• Enough peat moss to cover the bottom of the tank about 2 inch high (some killies like more some less hight)

• Temp should be below to mid 70's

• Thermometer

• paper towels when collecting the peat moss

• A big siphon

• and also low lighting

How to do it?

• Acclimate your fish properly to into the tank

• Feed your fish heavily with live food (but never to much)

• You will only do a partial water change of 50% weekly on that option, because you will siphon out the peat moss at the same time

• Siphon out the peat, catching it with a net, and squeeze it until it yields only a drip or two on further squeezing

• Spread it on paper towels for about an hour and then bag it in ordinary plastic fish bags or equivalent. Do not use extra heavy bags such as you might use to transport large cichlids, as these do not permit proper exchange of gases through the plastic, and so can greatly extend the incubation period

• Seal the bag, mark it with the date, species, and expected hatching date.

• Store, if possible, in an area of about 75 degrees F. This seems to be the optimum temperature for incubation. (Some people build an incubator out of Styrofoam fish boxes and small light bulbs specifically for this purpose.)

When fish arrive

• Open the top of the bag and float it in the tank where they will go into

• Add 1/4 cup of water from the tank every hour, for up to 4-5 hours

• After that dump the whole contents of the bag into a separate empty bowl

• Immediately net out the fish into the tank they will be housed in

• Don't feed your fish for at least 24 hours, that way they can adjust to their new surroundings

• NEVER EVER ADD THE WATER FROM THE BAG INTO THE TANK

These are what eyed up eggs look like
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb53/evelynmarch26/Killie34.jpg


Hatching eggs which you purchased through a breeder or a shipper

1- On receiving them you should look carefully through the peat to see if you can identify eggs.
2- If they are near hatching date, are they eyed-up? That is, is the iris of the eye clearly developed? If not, rebag the peat and incubate it in the mid 70s.
3- If they are eyed up, wet the peat by dumping it into a plastic shoe box or similar with a couple of inches of water.
4- You should see fry within a few hours. The best way to go is wetting the peat at night and look the next morning.
5- Then you should feed your fresh hatched fry with very newly hatched brine shrimp for a day or so, then remove the fry from the peat to a fresh container of the same aged water you used to wet them.
6- The most important issue is to try to ensure that there are actually eggs in the peat you receive. The best way to do so is asking the shipper or breeder how many eggs they suspect to be in the peat moss.

Here are 2 different hatching solutions to ensure hatching

1- Natural Hatching solution

1 Gallon Jar
Small Fist full of Peat moss
12 oak leaves
Rainwater
eyedropper

Place the dirt and the leaves into the jar and fill it up with Rainwater

Let sit until water turns brown like a coca cola color and put the peat moss with the eggs in it, and you don't have to worry about the eggs getting to much light that way

Eggs which are not fertile will turn a very dark brown or white and need to be removed immediately, best with an eyedropper

Replace Rainwater in the jar as needed and use until solution looses it's brown color, when that happens you have to start a new jug

With that method you don't need any chemicals and also helps to produce larger hatches

Use this method to hatch eggs of Aphyosemin, Rivulus and any others that like soft acid water

2-Dye Hatching Solution

2 gallon jar
1 gallon water
1/2 tsp. non-iodized Salt
1 drop Aquari Sol
5 drops Methylene Blue
1 Eyedropper

Put your batch of peat moss with the eggs into this solution.
The Methylene Blue reduces light since most killies are light sensitive.
If eggs turn blue, they're either infertile or fungused and need to be removed right away.
If you use too much Methylene Blue, the eggs will turn blue as well, so be very careful when dosing it.
The Aquari-Sol is an anti-fungus agent.
The dye is not stable, so you need to make up a fresh batch every 3-4 days.
Check your eggs daily and take all the bad ones out with an eyedropper.

Raising the freshly hatched fry

        A fairly small, shallow tank or container keeps fry and food in close proximity. Young fish usually have good appetites; they must eat frequently and heavily in order to grow. Fish fed only once or twice a day will rarely become large, robust breeders, so feed them as many as half a dozen times a day, if possible. As the fry grow, they can be moved to larger quarters.

        The disadvantage of small quarters and frequent, heavy feedings is rapidly accumulating high levels of pollution from wastes and decaying foods. High levels of nitrogenous waste also act as growth inhibitors, so frequent partial water changes (up to 50% several times a week, or even daily) are essential to maintain healthy growth rates in the fry.

        Good filtration can be as important as regular water changes. Sponge filters have proven best for use with small fry, since they can't be sucked into them, and often feed from microorganisms growing on the filter surface. Also useful are inside, air-driven box filters. Small fry often swim into such filters and feed on the trapped food particles and microorganisms there, so it's best to leave off the lid, to prevent fry from being trapped.

        Ideally, food source(s) for the newly hatched fry should have been planned for well ahead of time. Young fish need a variety of foods to grow their best, but providing it is not as simple as it is for adult fish due to the small sizes required. Dried and powdered foods can be used, both crushed adult foods and commercially prepared food for fry, but there's no substitute for live food. There are a number of possibilities, depending on the size of the fry and the space, skills, and capabilities of the aquarist.

        For all but the smallest killifish fry , the most easily available live foods are baby brine shrimp (Artemia Salina nauplii), micro worms, and vinegar eels. Micro worms can easily be cultured by the aquarist using cornmeal slurry or cooked oatmeal as a base; vinegar eels grow without care in a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. Baby brine shrimp can be hatched out in the fish room with little trouble. If available, baby daphnia may also be used.

        However, some fry are so tiny that even these small foods are too big. For such babies, green water, infusoria, or yeast or egg yolk infusions may be necessary.

        Green water is no more than single celled algae, and can be cultured by adding algae from the aquarium or a few drops of liquid fertilizer to aged aquarium water and leaving it in a sunny location. Feed a small measure of the liquid to the fry.

        Infusoria are small, single-celled animals such as euglena, paramecia, or amoebas, or microscopic multi-celled ones such as rotifers. To aged aquarium water add crushed lettuce and the culture starter. When it gets cloudy it is ready to feed, as above.

        Yeast Infusion: dissolve some baker's yeast in aged aquarium water. Feed immediately.

        Egg Yolk Infusion: Hard-boil an egg and remove the yolk. Mash to a fine consistency, then swirl in water. Feed small amounts of the resulting cloudy liquid.

        As fry grow, they may "graduate" to larger and more varied foods. Remember, though, that the more variety in the diet and the cleaner you can keep their quarters, the better they will do.

        You've managed to bring the clutch of eggs and the newly hatched fry safely through the early weeks of growth, and they are coming along nicely. Now comes one of the harder tasks, sorting and culling the fry. Although some aquarists seem driven to "raise them all," sorting and culling are necessary tasks.

        Sorting. Most broods contain a few individuals that grow more quickly than the others. This disparity in size can lead to harassment and actual predation of smaller individuals by the larger ones. Sorting fry by size can thus result in more fry successfully raised. For the same reasons, it is a poor idea to mix broods of different sizes and ages together.
     
   Culling. Few broods also fail to include some specimens that are obviously weaker, less healthy, or that are deformed. In nature, these individuals would rapidly die from predation. In the more protected environments of aquarists' tanks, we must be responsible for selectively destroying them. These culls can either be euthanized (one humane method is to freeze them in a small amount of water), or (if they are not diseased) to use them as feeders for other fish.

    Following these general steps, you should be able to have the satisfaction of raising a group of healthy, well developed young fish. From these you can then proudly and confidently select your future breeders, your show fish, and those you will sell to other hobbyists.